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Ubisoft Wants A Price Cut For PS3, 360

Ubisoft does. The publisher's CEO, Yves Guillemot, told GamesIndustry.biz that with the emergence of new hardware - the Wii U and PlayStation Vita - and slower sales of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Europe, he'd be excited to see a price drop for the latter two systems. Guillemot believes the Wii U may exert pressure on Sony and Microsoft to put cheaper prices on their gaming consoles, but neither manufacturer seems ready to show off their next machine just yet. Furthermore, after everything Sony went through this year, we'd be surprised to see the PS3 fall in price. Analysts have often said $299 is the "sweet spot" for Sony's console, and with continued year-over-year growth, that makes sense.

But hey, if there is a price cut this year, we certainly won't complain.

Comments (47 posts)

So, I'm waiting for their announcement of their price cuts too... Ubi want a console price cut, presumably $50 for the PS3 down to $249 (which I believe is the final price point for the PS3 until the successor arrives)? OK, in that case, how about lopping 1/6 of the game prices they charge? How about it Ubisoft, if Sony and MS cut their prices by 1/6, will you start charging $50 for your games? It only seems fair after all.

Actually, Ubisoft is known for dropping the price of their games rather quickly. And I am thankfull for that, as I scored great deals on AC2 and Brotherhood only months after initial release. So, it seems they do practice what they preach.

Activision on the other hand is a different story. They seem to keep their game prices inflated forever, and yet, a year or so ago, *before* Sony and MS dropped their prices, it was Activision who called for price drops. I believe Activision deserved much criticism then, more so than what Ubisoft deserves now IMO.

I agree that some publishers do seem to drop their prices a few months after the initial release of their titles. But with games, once their initial investment in developing the title is paid off, apart from a few incidentals (manufacturing, shipping etc.) any future sales are pure profit. Hardware on the other hand, has much higher costs for manufacturing.

I do understand his comments from business perspective, the more consoles out there, the larger your potential audience. Also, for people like us, it is quite easy to justify the cost of $299 for a PS3, but it just isn't the reality for everyone.

More to Highlanders point regarding demanding a price drop, the only comment Ben referenced from the CEO regarding a price drop that we could analize was that he would be "excited" to see a price drop. That doesn't sound too demanding to me. If someone were even remotely interested enough to interview me, and ask me about what it would take to prime the pump of the recently stagnating game market, I might just say I also would be excited to see a price drop for the consoles.

I tried to jump to the link Ben provided so that I could read the CEO's comments in their full context, and it required me to sign up and log in, and blah blah blah. I just couldn't be bothered... =)

While the PS3 is still a massive value at $300. I wouldn't mind having thembecome less expensive. In fact, I wouldnt mind having 2 PS3s. That way if the unthinkable were to happen to my only PS3 I wouldnt be up a creek like I was a couple years ago.

I just don't have the same faith in the vitality of consoles today.Heck, I still have an original NES and Dreamcast that works.

Well...yeah, but you can't expect them to drop the price below the $150 replacement charge though, can you? That's just not going to happen anytime soon.

It'd be really nice if the PS3 were able to read already PS3 formatted drives. The only really nasty part is getting your PS3 replaced, having to immediately format, and then having to copy everything (that can be copied) from your backup, back onto the PS3.

I just got the 160 Gig model for $199.99 thanks to Amazon's lightning deal a couple days ago.

With all these gift cards that retailers have been giving out lately with the purchase of systems, it really seems like a price drop is imminent. Either that, or we are going to see new model/sku's coming out, with perhaps bigger hard drives, and retailers are blowing out the old 160G models. I would think Sony and M$ are giving a kickback to retailers for the money the retailers are giving up by offering these gift cards for these consoles.

I think Morne was referring to the cost of the refurb replacement by the Sony service center.

But I agree with you, $150 isn't going to happen.

I could see them going to $249.99 this year as a 'special' price later in the year, and then making that the official price in 2012. If Sony ever goes the System on a Chip route with the PS3, integrating the CellBE and RSX along with some of the control logic onto a single chip, they might conceivably come up with a system small enough, and cool enough to shave pricing to $199.99, possibly $149.99 very, very late in it's life cycle. But I don't honestly think we'll ever see a PS3 selling at less than $150, and until the last couple of years of it's product life, I don't think we'll see a PS3 below $199.99.

Yeah, Highlander's correct. Sorry should have explained that a little further. Really the only annoyance about the whole process is that one freekin detail. For larger HDD's, it just takes awhile to restore.

Yeah highlander. And the HDD makes for an expensive obstacle as well. I remember an interview with the former MS head, Peter Moore, who said that they literally price dropped themselves into debt and early abandonment of the xbox by having dropped it to $150..... Surprising eh? That they didn't forsee that ;)He cited the HDD as the major reason why they were eating $30 on every Xbox at that price point.

World, I had 2 DCs too. I just offloaded one on eBay for $50 to help cover the infamous 2 expense.

A new PS3 comes with a new DS3, so a $199 price tag actually makes it effectively cheaper than the repair fee (as the 360 Arcade did).

I get 20% off, so for me $249 makes buying a new PS3 preferable to getting another repair. I might even decide not to wait for my 60 to fail if the HDD on the hypothetical $249 PS3 is big enough...more likely still if it has more USB ports (2 is not sufficient).

So, is Ubisoft offering to subsidize PS3/360 sales? I'm sure MS and Sony wouldn't mind dropping the retail price if Ubisoft threw MS/Sony 50-100, for each unit sold. Sounds like a plan to me. Get on it Ubi!

I've been holding out for PS3 to hit $250 as well. My bluray drive is starting to flake out, it won't play half my blu ray movies anymore. Games and dvd's still work pretty consistently, but it sucks to have a collection of HD movies I can't watch :(

I've been considering a stand alone bluray player for movies, but a good bluray player runs around $200. So if PS3 hits $250 I'll just pony up and get a second PS3 instead.

I think you will see the PS3 hit $249.99 as a special promotional price this autumn - clearing the stock in channel so to speak. Sometime next year the official price will go to $249.99 - but that will depend a little on Vita because I can't see Sony pricing the PS3 at a lower price than a Vita - you never know though.

My Ps3 60GB fatty just went down on me for good,had it since day one and fix it myself from YLOD 5 times.Just 2 days ago I went on Ebay and bought a brand new 320Gb slim for only $275.00 with free shipping.Buy it now section too,it wasn't even an auction either soo... My point is you don't have too wait for anything, if you want a PS3 just take your time do a little bit of searching online and buy yourself one I saw 320Gb Ps3 move bundles for about $360.00 brand new with free shipping. Retailers in general have to start bringing down prices it's hard to compete with online prices.I have bought my last 5 or 6 games online all cheaper than 55 dollars online sealed and new releases to.

what's intersting there is you notice the 360 is pulling away from the ps3 with sales almost 44.5% above the ps3. that's one trend i don't like, and it's especially discouraging when you consider the ps3's strong exclusive line up vs hardly anything recently on the 360.

i know sony can't win a price war with ms but i'm for anything that closes that gap. maybe sony should consider a special price for a ps3 in na. i just wish it was trending sony's way here.there was an interesting article on the sixth axis that had all the recent worldwide sales trends. there was a worldwide trend of sony catching ms until the last fiscal quarter when the 360 actually outsold the ps3 by 600,000 consoles worldwide. you can view that as a failure on ms part since we all know how much they spent on kinect advertisements, but it did boost their console sales.Last edited by Excelsior1 on 6/17/2011 12:27:24 PM

I know you labeled those as NA, which they are. But I'd love to see the global numbers too - not than anyone really has them.

I'd also love to know how many of those 360s are sold with an HDD in them, and how many were kinect bundles - but again, there's no way to know.

I don't think Sony should, or will, be troubled by this. Microsoft bet the farm on Kinect, and has spent accordingly. also they are literally giving away 360s as PC accessories right now in NA. Far be it for me to suggest that they are trying to buy market share - but they are. Microsoft is well known for buying market share in other markets and product lines, so it wouldn't be a surprise...Last edited by TheHighlander on 6/17/2011 12:49:40 PM

oh, i know they are buying marketshare. that's why i said one could view that as a failure since 500 million in advertising only bought them +600,000 sales net worldwide. it did reverse a trend, though. sony doesn't need to worry about that per se, but i would view the na sales as a legimate concern. this is a subject you and i have discussed at length.

it's up on the sixth axis if you want to view it. i'm going to go look up the numbers now if i can still find it.

That's because MS is really pushing the 360 as a casual gaming system as of late, they been making major moves on Nintendo's market and it's really paying off for them so far. The Kinect is the only reason people are still buying 360's. It's becoming really appealing to the masses.

Sony on the other hand isn't pushing PSmove as hard.Last edited by GuyverLT on 6/17/2011 1:12:59 PM

@highlanderi am proud of myself i did find it. the quickest way to view it is do a google search for the sixth axis 360 extends lead on ps3. it has detailed sales charts on worldwide console sales including the handhelds. these numbers were derived from the financial statements of the companies. the sixth axis actually goes back a ways so it's pretty interesting. even tracks the ps2.

jan-march wordwide sales in millions

360 2.70ps3 2.10wii 1.37

@guyver

i'm hoping ms kinect push will cost them some hardcore gamers. it might have serious consequences for ms next gen.Last edited by Excelsior1 on 6/17/2011 1:42:37 PM

It more than likely will, cause myself along with a hell of a lot of 360 gamers were looking forward to the new 3rd person action/rpg Fable title and Codename Kingdoms (now called Ryse). Only to have them turn to of they're most anticipated action/adventure titles into some FPS Kinect BS. I sincerely hope they don't do this to all the games because I've already stated that I'm not into motion gaming stuff... I'm old school. If this is what those of us who own both 360 as well as a PS3 have to look forward too then I'm now considering selling my 360Last edited by GuyverLT on 6/17/2011 2:59:31 PM

meh i don't think sony needs to drop anymore. in my opinion at this point in the PS3's life with the amount of world class exclusives like UC2 & MGS4 just to name a few & factor in the netflix & all the other content the PS3's offers 300$ is a stealLast edited by TheCanadianGuy on 6/17/2011 1:13:34 PM

Ubisoft, you must focus on making more technically sound games. You must also create something other than Assassin's Creed. BG&E for the NEXT generation? Come on. Get to work, then you will get more sales. It isn't the cost of systems troubling you.

With stores having $100 gift card offers for PS3/360 purchases, that may be a signal that the prices are about to drop...besides holiday deals, I think that only really happened before right before the last price cuts. I could be wrong, though.

BTW, is there ANY way to permanently disable this freakin' retarded Scrolling Comments BS? It keeps deciding on its own to re-enable it when I toggled it off.Last edited by xnonsuchx on 6/17/2011 6:27:38 PM

Wait, I haven't seen an official price for the Wii U yet! So if Nintendo's revamped system goes for, say, $249 (same price as the 3ds and WiFi Vita) then $299 for a PS3/360 is still reasonable! I, for one, believe that handheld systems shouldn't cost more than home consoles. But what do I know? Right?

It is true that new hardware often drives down the price of five year old hardware so he is most likely not far from the truth with his comments. But honestly, if you need an official $50 price drop before buying a PS3, you really REALLY don't know how to shop.

i doubt it.M$ are making a fortune of there systems, especially kinect bundled ones so theres no need for one.

same thing for sony, plus they just started making a profit on the ps3 so theres no way there going to cut the price!especially considering the loss they have made with it, and the millions lost in the tokyo disaster, and the millions they lost in the PSN downtime, and the millions they have lost fighting the hackers.sony are the ones who can LEAST afford a price drop!dont need it either, if all the games released for it, and all the games releasing for it this year alone, are not enough to win people over then i wont believe 100 buck price drop or so will!

only thing that needed a price drop was the wii, and it got one a few months ago its only 150 bucks ATM!thats half price!thinking of getting one again next month when theres nothing else to play, i really want to play epic mickey and DKCR.O, not to mention the new zelda.not even god himself could keep me away from that!speaking of the new zelda, its the next game to get the tonight show treatment.

In a perfect world Tier 1 games would be $50 it is just sad that I can not get 2 brand new games for 100 dollars. If a new PS3 system was 250 dollars I would consider buying a new one to replace my 80gig, if it was 200 dollars I would go out this weekend and get one.

As a side I saw Cod 4 Modern Warfare at best buy this weekend still selling for 30 dollars. I nearly crapped my pants

That would be nice I want a new system but don't have the money for it this is not a ten year system no matter what sony says I had my system for a year and now none of my controllers I changed the batteries but nothing I have to use the two foot cord to play it sucks and when I call sony they said theirs nothing they could do cause theirs only a one year warrant so I would appreciate the price drop